The Berserker
by Sniper-of-Death
Summary: In a fight with one of the Angels, Shinji Ikari has been accidentally transported 100 years into the future, where he has been heroically idealized beyond belief... Full summary Inside.
1. A Gift From The Gods

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion, but if I did, there would be a lot of huge all girl orgies on the show. Drools

**Author's notes:** This is my second story for Neon Genesis Evangelion, I will explain what the story will be about in a bit. However, this note is to tell you that I will not stop updating my other story, Neon Genesis Evangelion 2.0. This is more of a little pet project, if I don't finish a story, it will most likely be this one, however, I always plan on finishing what I start, mainly because I always hated authors who would not update for months, come back, update once and says they'll be back, only to disappear forever. Well, I do not have an ending for this story but I will try to end it in a good way. This idea has been inspired from the novel The Lost Fleet: Dauntless where a man was taken out of survival hibernation 100 years in the future to find that he has been heroically idealized beyond belief.

**Summary:** Not much has past since the failed attempt at Human Instrumentality from SEELE; many of the members are now, thankfully, behind bars or dead. However, the Angel attacks still continue, and although this is a mystery, people can only sit tight and try to tough it out. However, during a fight with an Angel, Shinji has accidentally been sent forward 100 years in time, where he is heroically idealized by all those throughout the world for his famous "Last stand." Shinji is now desperately trying to find a way to get back, and at the same time, decide whether he should return to his past, or fight to defend the future…

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7/23/06 

"That's the Angel?" Asuka slowly approached it. It looked like a rip-off of the fourteenth Angel, Zeruel, with its similar body shape and two paper like tentacles on it's side, and much like the fourteenth, this thing had been able to break inside the Geo-front.

"Now Asuka, despite its appearance, we must approach it with caution, we can't afford to underestimate anything." Misato said, trying to restrain her from doing anything rash.

"Whatever, I can take it." Asuka willed her recently rebuilt Unit 02 in a sprint towards the Angel.

"Damn it, you'd think she'd learn by now," yelled Misato frustrated by her actions. "Shinji, Rei, provide cover fire and as much assistance as possible."

"Yes ma'am." They both said in unison as they opened fire from their positions with their M34-K assault rifles. The old Pallet rifle that they used and grown to hate had been recently upgraded with more powerful shells and a more durable barrel; however, it is still a lousy piece of shit, much like its predecessor, the shells did nothing but bounce of the AT field as the pea-shooters expended their ammunition.

"Whatever just make sure that you don't hit me with those damn things." Asuka yelled as she charged at the Angel with the new prototype Progressive sword in an attempt to hack it to pieces. The Angel however had different plans, in one fluid motion, it swung itself behind Unit 02, and using one of it's tentacles, it stabbed Unit 02 in the back, lifting up in the air. Asuka let out a scream of pain as the Angel threw her across the Geo-front and landed dangerously close to a civilian shelter.

"Unit 02 has suffered sever damage to its spinal column!" Shigeru said, looking at the monitor.

"Its powering down, the S2 engine has been severely damaged!" Mokato said. All the Evas had been recently upgraded with S2 engines, once it had been seen that they worked on the Mass Production models, it was eagerlyaccepted by the pilots, finally happy to get rid of their annoying umbilical cables.

"Rei, get Asuka back into the hanger, Shinji provide cover and try to hold the Angel off for as long as possible, and also try and keep it away from the shelters." Misato commanded.

"Yes ma'am." Rei began to drag the silent figure that was Unit 02 back towards NERV, with the Angel in hot pursuit. Shinji, following orders, jumped in front of the Angel and tried his best to fight it so it would not get Unit 02 or 00.

"Let go of me Wondergirl, I can handle myself!" Asuka screamed inside of her Eva, and despite the fact that the communications worked, everyone had eventually learned to ignore the red-devil.

"Damn it." Shinji cursed as one of the tentacles nearly chopped off Unit 01's left arm. He had been slowly backing towards a shelter and was within one hundred meters of it. He had to go on the offensive or risk back pedaling onto the shelter and kill those inside. Taking out his progressive knife, he decided to go for broke in an all or nothing lunge towards the Angel's core. As fate would have it, he missed, but was luckily able to knock the Angel backwards a few hundred meters, in a safe distance awayfrom the shelter.

"Rei's coming Shinji, you're doing well." Misato said as Rei docked Unit 02 into the hanger, much to the protests of its pilot.

"Well hurry up, I can't hold out much longer." Shinji screamed as he was wrestling with the Angel, in a fashion much like his fight with the fourteenth, however, this time Unit 01 carried an S2 engine, allowing it to operate without an umbilical cable so he was in no danger of his Eva losing power.

"I'm on my way Pilot Ikari, ETA two minutes." Rei said in her usual manner, grabbing a positron rifle and began heading out.

"Shit." Shinji cried as the Angel knocked Shinji off of him, sending him flying backwards. The Angel, seeing its preyhelpless on the ground, lashes both tentacles at it. Before the Angel was able to destroy Unit 01 however, Rei showed up in time and fired a shot from the positron rifle, although she did minimal damage, it was able to momentarily distract the Angel, giving Shinji a small window of opportunity. Seeing the Angel distracted and leaving an opening, he picked up his progressive knife and lunges at the Angel's core. The Angel reacted too late as Shinji began to dig his knife deeper into the core. As the knife continuesits diveinto the core andtowords the S2 Organ,the Angel, in a desperate attempt, went for broke in an attempt to take Unit 01 with it, an alarm sounded on the control bridge.

"Status report!" yelled Misato.

"We're getting a high energy reading coming from the Angel!" Mokato cried.

"Power levels are off the chart!" Shigeru yelled.

"It's going to self destruct!"

"What's the deal, many Angel's have tried to self destruct before." Misato questioned.

"No, the Magi estimated the blast to have the destructive power of around one hundred thousand N2 mines!"

"What!" cries were heard throughout NERV about the current situation.

"It'll have the destructive capabilities to level all of Japan, and possibly do considerable damage to parts of China, Korea, and Russia." Mokato yelled.

"Fuck, what am I going to do then?" Shinji yelled as the Angel began to glow a bright orange.

"…" Everyone had just about given up hope on their current situation, praying for a miracle to happen.

Just then Shinji had an idea, it was risky, but it might be able to work, grabbing the Angel, he projects his AT field all around it, in an attempt to contain the blast.

"Shinji, what the hell are you doing?" screamed Misato, Shinji was about to sacrifice himself in an attempt to contain the explosion, so this did not suit well for her.

"I'm sorry." He said one last time before an explosion rung throughout the Geo-front sending huge shockwaves throughout the Geo-front and basking it in a blinding white light. Once the shockwaves have past and the blinding light has disappeared, everyone checked and noticed that they were all alive. Cheers where heard all throughout NERV, all happy to be alive, however this cheering ceased once the smoke cleared, and nothing remained of the Angel or Unit 01.

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**Tokyo-5, formally known as Tokyo-3, 2116**

**NERV Japan, Geo-front**

"It's broken into the Geo-front!" Major Sumi Tanaka, commander of operations yelled from the control bridge the situation seemed desperate; they were fighting a losing battle.

"Units 15-17 have been incapacitated" Kane yelled from his Eva unit 14. The three Evas assigned to intercept the Angel on the surface had been taken out, rather easily.

"Well, at least we can get some of the action, instead of playing back-up!" Leiko said back, she had eagerly been awaiting the Angel since its detection.

"Here is comes." Sumi said to the two remaining pilots. A loud rumble was head from above as the Angel broke through and landed in front of them.

"That's the Angel?" Leiko scoffed, "It looks like a giant Hydralisk, whoever's sending these things sure isn't very creative."

"What's a hydralisk?" Kane just had to ask.

"It's a Zerg unit from the pre-second impact game Starcraft." She laughed. The Angel, not very amused, opened fire with needle spines, much like in the game Starcraft, however, each of these spines happen to be a hundred meters long. The needle spines traveled at a great velocity towards the two. Leiko, in Unit 18, was able to dodge in time, Kane wasn't so lucky, for a large spine nailed his Eva in the chest, silencing it immediately.

"Leiko, hold your ground, don't do anything rash, you're all we have left!" Sumi yelled at her.

"Good, there'll be no one to get in my way then!" she cheered as she arrogantly charges the Angel with her Progressive sword. Seeing many openings in his foolish opponent, the Angel uses one of its giant claws and stabs Unit 18 in its left forearm, causing it to drop the sword. As Leiko tries to fight it with her good arm, another claw came down and stabbed her Eva in the chest. The Angel picked up the Eva and threw it onto a civilian shelter, killing all those unfortunate enough to be inside. With all five Eva units quickly and easily taken out, the Angel proceeded with its mission, to find Adam, and headed towards NERV HQ.

"We've lost." Sumi slumped back in her chair, ready to accept the end of all humanity. No one said a word inside NERV, after a hundred years of hard fighting, the Angels have finally won. Many cried, trying to come to grips with the reality, they lost, the Angels won, and the Third Impact will finally occur and wipe humanity from existence. It all seemed hopeless, as it seemed everyone only had but a few minutes left to live.

"Major, we've detected a huge energy spike!" yelled one of the technicians, aatching the attention of those on the bridge.

"An energy attack?" asked Sumi.

"No, this is something else; it's forming near The Shrine!"

"What the hell?" A bright light blinded the view from the monitors, whatever it was, it was big. Once the lighted cleared, everyone only stared in shock at what they were looking at. In front of them stood something that had long since disappeared, over a hundred years ago. It was a tall monstrous beast, and just looking at it brought fear into thehearts of thosewho had just witnessed this event.

"No way…"

"Unit 01…"

"It's…the Berserker…"

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"Ugh, what the fuck just happened." The last thing Shinji had remembered was a bright light, and next thing he knew, he was here. It looked like the Geo-front, however, it seems old. The shelters were crumbling, and there was graffiti almost everywhere. The place looked shot up, and the ground was riddled with pot holes. Looking around some more, he notices the Hydralisk/Angel staring at him.

Everyone on the control bridge couldn't believe their eyes, when hope was all crushed, and humanity had welcomed death, something completely unexpected. Evangelion Unit 01, believed to have been destroyed along with its pilot, Shinji Ikari, a hundred years ago, had suddenly returned, as if it were a gift from the gods themselves.

"Misato, what the hell just happened?" Shinji asked trying to establishing a com-link, however getting no response. The frequency used in Unit 01 had long since become obsolete, and due to his outdated equipment, he had been unable to communicate with NERV, however, trying to figure out what had just happened will have to wait. For the Angel had been finished analyzing this new threat and opened fire. Shinji, seeing the large needle spines heading towards him, jumped out of the way. Knowing that he had better defeat this Angel before any more damage is done.

"What the hell is he doing?" asked a man on the control bridge as they stood and watched. Unit 01 had taken out its Progressive knife, and slowly approached the Angel from the front, as if ready to go on an all out charge. More curious then threatened, the Angel continued to watch, but when Unit 01 began to get dangerously close, the Angel launched another volley of its needle spines. Everyone on the control bridge watched this magnificent scene in front of them as Unit 01 jumped over the Angel's needle spines and threw its knife into the one of the flaps on the side of its head, the area where the needle spines are generated, and then launched.

As the Angel was writhing in pain, Shinji landed back onto the ground and took out in a large sprint towards the Angel. He quickly closes the gap between him and the Angel and pulled out his knife from its carapace. He then began to stab the Angel constantly with his knife aswas blindly stabbing at it, looking for its core. Frustrated with not being able to find it, he drops the knife and began pounding it with his fists. The crew on the bridge watch in horror as blood, flesh, and organs sprayed all over the Geo-Front as Unit 01 was beating the Angel with its bare fists, None of the other five pilots have been able to touch the Angel, let alone beat it into submission. After a good three minutes of pounding, Shinji finally found the core and crushed it with one hand.

No one knew what to do next, many wanted to vomit, no one had seen a scene this gruesome, close, but not this bad. They had just seen before their very eyes, the Legendary Berserker return from the dead, and single handedly defeat the Angel with ease. After all, the five Evas that where originally assigned to engage the Angel had been easily taken out in under fifteen minutes by this one Angel, but the Berserker had come in and was able to take in out in under five. Although cheerful that they had all been saved, no one knew what do when Unit 01 turned its head, and slowly began making its way towards them…

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A/N: Well, this is a little chapter I wrote consisting of my idea. I really hope you guys enjoyed it, even if Shinji is a little Mary-sue, it will all be explained later. And speaking of Chapter 2, I will write it once I finish with the next chapter on my other fic. Well, tell me what you think,

PLEASE REVIEW.

I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHERE I KEEP THE EXPLOSIVES.

**Toodles. **


	2. Dday plus 3650

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion, and thankfully I do not own any STD's, which explains why I'm at Dungeons and dragons game night…

Well, this is Chapter 2 of my second story. I am having some trouble coming to grips with what to write for it, but I will do my best. ON WITH THE STORY! Oh and if you're wondering why Shinji was a little Mary-sue, it was mainly because the Angel underestimated him. If you took out five Evas quickly and easily, and a new one pops up, you aren't going to think of it as much of a threat. Well, here's the chapter.

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7/24/06-7/25/06 

Shinji sat in his bed, he had recently been given an apartment, and although it was a rather nice one, it didn't help the mood whatsoever. How would you react if you had just found out you were mysteriously transported a hundred years into the future, where all of your friends and all those you care for are dead. And to make matters worse, everyone worshipped him as a god, although he liked the praise and acknowledgement, it only pained him greater to see that all of his battle have been greatly exaggerated, so no one really knew who he truly was. And with little care for the other two pilots who had helped him out.

"Look at me; I can't believe I'm actually complaining about this." Shinji chuckled. "Asuka would've loved to be in my shoes…" However, thinking about Asuka brought back memories of her and the rest of the crew back in 2016. Thinking that it had been a long day, he decides that it was best to try and get some sleep, but all he could do was think about what had happened only a few hours earlier.

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**Earlier**

Shinji coughed a bit as he exited the entry plug. He looked around the Eva cages, they were different, it was larger, and showed signs od age. And along with some old plating there was newer plating, as if it were recently repaired. He also notices something odd, he reconized none of the workers, and to make things worse, they were all staring at him.

"It's him, he's the Berserker!" he heard a man whisper.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure, you saw that fight, no one else could've fought like him, and that's Unit 01, it's got to be him."

"Who are you all talking about?" Shinji asked out curious. No one replied, they all remained silent, and nervous. "Misato, Asuka, Rei, where are you guys?" he got no response. However, he heard foot steps approach him, turning around he spots a man, who bore great resemblance to Gendo. He was the Supreme Commander of NERV as of current. He was an old man, somewhere in his late 50's, and stood a good 6'1" and towered over Shinji.

"Hello Mr. Ikari." The man spoke.

"Hello, who are you?" Shinji asked.

"I am the current NERV commander."

"Current commander, what happened to my father?" Shinji showed a slight glint in his eyes, as if he just found out his mom had returned and justkilled Gendo.

"Please, come I'll explain everything." The man headed towards the door, Shinji followed behind.As he followed the Commander, he noticed something odd, the workers were all rather young, maybe in their early twenties. However the thing he found most disturbing was that everyone refused to make eye-contact when he looked at them.

"Excuse, but do you know what's going on?"

"I'll explain in a bit, just follow me."

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Shinji found it hard to believe, he was in the year 2116, and there was nothing he could do about it. It seems that during his battle with the second to last Angel, the explosion had somehow allowed the AT field to cause a rip in the space time continuum, transporting him a hundred years in the future.

"Well Mr. Ikari, the Magi gave the possibility of such a thing occurring a .0000000001 percent." The scientist said. She was a rather attractive woman, as are most in anime, she had curly blonde air and stood at around 5' 6".

(A/N: Okay, I admit it, I really suck at character details; deal with it.)

"A lot of things would've had to go correctly for such a thing to happen." The Commander said.

"It also was rather odd for you to appear at the exact moment when all five Evas were incapacitated too.

"It's as if the gods have sent you here for that very reason."

"I wouldn't say that." Shinji said softly.

"Well, if there are any questions you need to ask; then go right ahead." The Commander said.

"You know, I've been meaning to ask you something." Shinji said.

"What is it?"

"Well, it's just that, everyone looks so young."

"Ah, well you see, after a hundred years of fighting, we've suffered many casualties, and we've had to have them quickly replaced."

"Casualties? We've barely had any before." Shinji gulped.

"I'm sure when the Berserker steps out on the battlefield, there are no friendly casualties."

"You used that term again, what does it mean?"

"I think you should see a little something." The Commander smirked. Shinji looked up as a large monitor came down from under the wall, and a documentary played.

_(Playing a documentary, you'll see how exaggerated his life was made out to be :) Bold is the narrator and everything has been reenacted to let you all know.)_

**"At 3:47 AM on February 23rd, 2001, the gods delivered a wondrous gift upon the world, what is seen has nothing but a mere child, will eventually earn the legendary title of 'The Berserker,' his name, Shinji Ikari."** Camera shows Yui Ikari holding Shinji in her arm.

**"Although but a child, he will bare the greatest responsibility of all: To protect the world, and all of humanity." **The camera pans to another scene, showing a reenactment of Shinji being abandoned by his father.

"PLEASE DADDY I'LL BE A GOOD BOY, I PROMISE!" the child cried as Gendo slowly walked away.

"You serve no use to me." Gendo said before disappearing.

**"Although abandoned as a child by his father, and crippled by the loss of his mother, this young boy had the strength and power to fight for those that had abandoned him many years ago." **Thecamera pans to battle with the third Angel.

**"Although reluctant at first, he eventually caved in and had agreed to pilot the monterous beast known as Unit 01." **The camera shows the Third Angel next to Unit 01.

**"The battle went off rather badly at first, as the Angel, designated as number 3, threw our hero against the building; all seemed lost." **Unit 01 remained silent on the screen.

**"However, our pilot was able to magically reactivate Unit 01 and attack with such ferocity never before seen. Although much of the combat footage has been lost, certain audio files were recovered; however, one word stuck out among them all, the word, Berserker. Although some debate why such a word was said, all agree that it was due to Mr. Ikari's fighting techniques."**

'That's bullshit, they've got everything wrong, the Eva went out of control, and that was why they called it the Berserker.' Shinji thought as he watched.

**"At first our hero was assigned to live all alone, but out of the kindness of Ms. Katsurai, who was a captain at the time, and Director of Operations, he was allowed to live in her apartment, which is now a national landmark." **The then camera pans to see the forth Angel as it made its way towards Tokyo-3.

**"The Angel designated number 4 approached the city of Tokyo-3 late afternoon on September 23rd, 2015. Unit 01 opened fire with a volley of shells from his Pallet rifle, although, doing minimal damage."** The screen showed the Angel knocking Unit 01 backwards.

**"Two civilians, believed to have been classmates of Mr. Ikari had recently snuck out of their shelter to watch the battle. However, it got off to a rocky start." **Camera then shows Unit 01 going on a mad dash towards the Angel.

**"With only three minutes of battery life in the Eva, the Berserker charged towards the Angel in a sprint, crushing its core with his progressive knife. Many debate why one would do such a foolish thing when he was ordered to retreat, some theories ranged from disrupted communications to having no other choice. The most commonly excepted theory however is that because two of Mr. Ikari's classmates were too close to the battle, meaning a retreat would mean their deaths."**

'Okay…' Shinji was beginning to wonder how much they screwed up his life.

**"The Angel designated number 5 was spotted on the morning of October 15th, 2015. Pilot Ikari was first sent out into battle, only to have to experience a painful energy blast to the chest." **Camera shows and actor portraying Shinji screaming in pain as the energy blast burned through the armor.

**"It was a miracle such a man were to survive, but our hero was able to shrug it off, and immediately return to the battle." **The camera shows Unit 00 and Unit 01 rising from the hillside.

**"Later that evening, Captain Katsuragi proposed operation Yashima, using the JSDF prototype positron to destroy the Angel, using Unit 01 as the shooter, with Unit 00 as support." **Scene changes to seeing Unit 01 fire the shot at the fifth Angel, killing it.

**"The first shot, missed, however, the second didn't; effectively killing Angel." **The scene pans to the melted wreckage Unit 00.

**"Shortly after the shot, Mr. Ikari left his Eva and ejected the entry plug from Unit 00. Pulling the super-heated hatch, he opened the entry plug, the pilot, Rei Ayanami, was confirmed safe. It is unknown what Mr. Ikari's relation to Ms. Ayanami was, theories range from her being his sister, to being his secret lover."**

Shinji spat out his soda, spraying it all over the monitor. Having seen enough so far, he began fast forwarding until he comes upon the final battle shown on the documentary.

**"June 16, 2016. A loud explosion rocked the Geo-Front as the Angel; designated number 21 had broken inside the Geo-Front. Orders from command were to engage the Angel within the Geo-Front and cause minimal civilian casualties. The plan was a three-pronged pincer attack upon the Angel." **Camera showed Asuka foolishly charging towards the Angel.

**"However, the Second Child disobeyed orders and charged the enemy. She sustained moderate damage as the Angel threw her across the Geo-Front."** Angel is seen throwing Asuka across the battlefield, landing on top of a civilian center.

'That didn't happen.' Though Shinji as he kept on watching the documentary,

**"Pilot Ayanami was ordered to retrieve Unit 02 and return it to the cage while Pilot Ikari was to hold of the Angel at all cost." **The camerashows Shinji fighting with the Angel, and also as he began back pedaling towards the shelter.

**"Getting dangerously close to a civilian center, Pilot Ikari, tried his best to save the civilians inside." **The camera shows Unit 01 taking out its progressive knife.

**"In and all or nothing shot, Pilot Ikari lunged at the Angel's core." **The camerashows the knife entering the core.

**"He successfully hit the target. Unfortunately in an attempt to take Unit 01 with it, the Angel set off a self destruct sequence. The explosion would have had the destructive capabilities of 100,000 N2 mines, recently estimated to have been able to destroy all of Japan, and most of the Eastern Pacific." **The camera shows Unit 01 grabbing onto the Angel.

**"In selfless attempt to protect those he cared for, Pilot Ikari grabbed hold of the Angel in an attempt to shield contain the blast as best as he could." **

"I'm sorry," said Shinji from an actual combat footage clip. The camerathenshows the pretty lightshow.

"**We will never forget Shinji Ikari for his selfless acts as he protected us all those many years ago. Many mourn the loss of such a great and noble hero. A shine has been erected at the epicenter, and actual stone replica of Unit 01 and a memorial service is performed every year, on the anniversary of his death. Many continue to fight the Angels, to make sure that his death was not in vain. New recruits continue to pour into training centers, for maybe, one day; they will get to fight the Angels, much like the legendary Berserker himself."**

The monitored turned off and clapping could be heard coming from those there to watch.

"So, let me guess, you all worship me like a god." Shinji put it bluntly.

"Yes."

'Sad, none of you know the real me…' Shinji held his head low, on the verge of tears.

"You miss them don't you?" The Commander asked.

"I want to go back." He nodded.

"Shinji, I'm afraid we can't do that."

"Why, we could repeat the process."

"No, its not that, it's just," sighed the commander. "Come, follow me."

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"You don't know how important you are to these people." The commander said as they headed towards the control room.

"What do you mean?" Shinji asked.

"Morale has been low; we've lost many of our pilots. It's been a hundred years Mr. Ikari we've all gotten weary of the fighting, the constant attacks. Many just want humanity to end, let the Angels win, and end all the fighting.

"…" Shinji remained silent.

"The people have gotten tired of sending their sons and daughters onto the battlefield, especially with the current average lifespan of the pilots."

"What is it?"

"Six months."

"…" Shinji was shocked. With six months as the average lifespan, and a hundred years of fighting, the casualties must have been enormous.

"Sir, casualty reports from today." A man said, referring to the monitor.

"What's the damage?" he asked.

"Civilian Shelter 34B has been crushed during the battle alll 342 of those inside were reported dead sir."

"How unfortunate."

"How could things have gotten so bad?" Shinji was outraged. The man at the computer got nervous, he had seen what Shinji had done to the Angel; it was wise not to get on his bad side.

"I'm sorry Mr. Ikari, but with the constant attacks, the lack of funding, some things just happen…' the commander said.

"…" Shinji was silent, he held his head low.

"What's the status of the Eva's and their pilots?" the commander glanced at the monitor.

"Units 14-17 have suffered heavy damage on their frontal armor plating. Unit 18 has suffered moderate damage to the spinal column, and light damage to the left forearm, damage to Unit 01, negligible."

"And the pilots."

"I'm afraid we've lost one of them, the Pilot of Unit 15, needle spine went straight through the entry plug, poor guy." Shinji stared at the monitor, not believing what he had just heard.

"Who was it?"

"Toji Suzuhara IV, sir." Shinji vomited.

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A/N: I apologize if you were a little disappointed with this chapter, it's just I need to get this story off the ground first. The next chapter will go a lot more in-depth and indroduce the characters, for it will show the day leading up to the battle. I'm sorry that the chapter was a little short, but unlike my other story, I couldn't use the Canon story line a backbone for development. So I hope you enjoyed this little update. Not my best chapter but, hey, everyone's got thier ups and downs.

PLEASE REVIEW.

I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE AND WHERE I KEEP THE EXPLOSIVES!

**Toodles.**


	3. The Storm Before the Calm

Disclaimer: I **do **own Neon Genesis Evangelion; Dodges Gunfire ALRIGHT ALRIGHT! I do **not **own Neon Genesis Evangelion…pricks…

Alright, so this is the third chapter in my story. I also came to a realization about this; it's an extremely original idea concept (so I've heard) and I do not want to screw it up. So I apologize for the late updates (By my standards at least) for I am trying to make the story out to the best of my ability.

P.S: I just want to know if I should change the rating to 'M', the Angel battles will be a little messy…

P.S.S: JET LAGG SUCKS! (Also another reason for the late update.)

P.S.S: Also my beta was taking his sweet time proof-reading, leading to the late update. (Glares at Genesis.)

Well, on with the story.

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7/26/06 

_"June 16, 2016. A loud explosion rocked the Geo-Front as the Angel; designated number 21 had broken inside the Geo-Front. Orders from command were to engage the Angel within the Geo-Front and cause minimal civilian-"_

"ARG!" a loud scream was heard, followed by a crash as a shoe flew across the room and came in contact with the television monitor; silencing the current documentary.

"Ms. Soryu, that is the second time this week!" the teacher yelled, angry that she has broken yet another television monitor.

"Hmph!" Leiko gave as a response; not really caring.

"Ms. Soryu, we know how touchy this subject is for you." The teacher sighed, "However, we respect your opinions, in which you should respect ours."

"Yea, whatever," she replied. Leiko Langley Soryu has always been a bitter child, upset and appalled by all the hero worship given to the Third Child; all of which she believed rightfully belonged to her great-grandmother, Asuka Langley Soryu. She bore a strong resemblance to her great-grandmother, looking almost completely identical (Along with the personality). Which only fueled her hatred of the boy even more because documentaries featuring Asuka were a tad bit depressing; it seems she also inherited her fiery temper. As a matter of fact her whole family hated Shinji, hated him for stealing their glory.

"Sheesh Leiko, it's just a movie, if you don't want to watch it, then you could just leave!" Kane sneered, having missed his favorite documentary thanks to her.

She gave him a look of disgust. "Oh, shut up, I can't believe you actually like that shit!"

"I'd like any documentary about the man who saved all our asses!" Kane Ayanami stood up from his desk. He seemed to show blind devotion to the boy, something that must go all the way back to his great-grandmother, Rei Ayanami. He towered over Leiko as he stared at her with his crimson tinted eyes, unlike his great-grandmother however; he had brown hair, and thankfully fit into society, well, as well as one who pilots forty stories tall Evas could.

Leiko remained silent.

"And to think they actually accepted you as a pilot!" he scoffed. Leiko had been accepted to pilot the recently rebuilt Eva Unit 18 a few months ago; when the last pilot self destructed his Eva, taking the Angel with it. Although she had no combat experience, she has received several months of training while Unit 18 was being rebuilt; and currently holds the a very high sync rate, second only to Kane.

"Of course they did, it's in the genetics!" Leiko displayed herself triumphantly, Kane only shook his head. "Finally, I can reclaim the family honor that was wrongfully stolen from us a hundred years ago."

"Please, Ms. Soryu, Mr. Ayanami," the teacher sighed; this happened way too often. "If it would be alright, may we continue on with class?"

"Whatever, as long as you don't give some stupid lecture on HIM," she scoffed, "I'm fine with it, hell the only thing worse than that is a lecture on the Second Impact."

"Why thank you, Ms. Soryu, for the lovely suggestion." The class groaned; they loved watching the fight scenes.

"Thanks a lot Leiko!" The class all yelled in unison; she laughed in response, glad to have gotten what she wanted, at the class's expense of course.

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"I'm glad we got out of that stupid hellhole!"

"I perfectly agree with you Toji," Kane agreed with his friend; they were finally out of class, and heading towards NERV, "How our great-grandparents survived that crap will always be a mystery!"

"Agreed," replied Toji IV; it had become a common tradition to name the first born son of the first born son in every generation after their father in society, as to how this wacky tradition started, no one knows. Toji IV greatly resembles his great-grandfather, Toji I, but with a few signifying differences; for starters his hair was a light brown, with spots of freckles on his face; you could guess who his great-grandmother was.

"Man, what's Leiko's problem anyways?"

"She too damn proud, must be in the blood or something."

"I wonder if she believes that new theory." Toji pondered.

Kane gave a look of confusion. "A new one, what's it about?" he asked.

"Well apparently there's a theory going about saying that Leiko's grandfather was the illegitimate son of The Berserker." Toji laughed.

There was a slight pause. "Yea right, there's no fucking way that's possible!" Kane yelled, with a hint of anger in his voice.

"Hey guys!" before Kane could punch out his friend however, they were interrupted by a voice.

"Hey Jakob," Toji said sheepishly, realizing Jakob had just saved his ass.

"What's so funny?" he asked. Jakob Prefferberg, designated pilot of Eva Unit 17, was the newest member of the team; having been accepted a few weeks ago as a replacement to the last pilot when an Angel crushed her entry plug as she tried to eject to safety; killing her in the process. Repairs were made, and a new pilot was quickly found.

(A/N: I recycle character names, so screw you all!)

"Toji said there was this stupid theory stating that Leiko's grandfather was the illegitimate son of The Berserker," Kane answered, glaring at him.

Jakob let the thought hang for a minute. "Well, he did live with her…"

"Whatever…" grumbled Kane as he walked off, in a sour mood.

Jakob turned to Toji with a confused look. "He's a little sensitive about anything concerning The Berserker and Asuka Soryu's relationship."

"Oh." Jakob sighed.

Kane's biggest pet peeve was any sort of theory that put Shinji and Asuka into a positive relationship. He knew that Leiko was pretty much an exact clone of her great-grandmother, and the thought of someone as heroic and brave as The Berserker would willingly carry a relationship with somewhat as bitchy and stuck up as Leiko was mind boggling to say the least.

He sighed; maybe it was just his mysteriously inherited blind devotion to him that made him think those things. But if that were true, wouldn't everyone, except the Soryus of course, be on his side? There had to be reason for this, but sadly, he had no real idea what it was.

"Look, Kane," Jakob tried to say.

"Save it Jakob, it's alright," said Kane, he had finally calmed down.

"Come on Kane, let's go get something to eat," Toji said, food always helped Kane feel better.

"Oh, hell, no, I'm saving everything for the ceremony tonight!" he smiled.

"Why does it matter, you'd be hungry by then anyways!"

They all shared a laugh.

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"Hey Leiko, you've got to hear this one!" Leiko was busy walking home from school when she heard her name being called; it had always bothered her as to why they all had to go to school on supposedly the most important day in the world.

"Yes, what is it?" she asked.

"Take a look at this," the girl said, referring to an article in a magazine. "It says here that they might now who your great-grandfather was."

Leiko's face lightened up; surprised and shocked at what she was hearing. "REALLY?" she asked, wanting answers now.

"Yes, it's a theory that has recently been released," she handed her the magazine, there, taking up the whole page, was the article, "here, take a look."

"What is it about?"

"Just read it!"

"Fine, fine," she began to read, however she didn't get far before she stopped. "No, there's no why this is possible," she tried to laugh, making it out to be nothing more than a joke.

"Come on, this one seems plausible."

"No, no way in hell is that possible." Leiko said coldly, she was beginning to get angry.

"Leiko…"

"No, there is no way!" she yelled.

"Look, Leiko…"

"NO, YOU LOOK HERE, KIMIKO, THERE IS NO FUCKING WAY IN HELL I AM RELATED TO HIM!"

"…" Kimiko was shocked; she just stared back at her friend as they stood there in silence for a few minutes, not wanting to break the awkward silence that fell between the two.

Leiko was the first to regain her composure. "I'm sorry," she said, before she ran off towards NERV, never looking back.

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Kane and his two other friends were currently heading towards the annual memorial service; paying tribune to The Berserker and his heroic duties of course. They were running late, it was getting close to eight, and the ceremony would begin at eight-fourteen; the exact time of the explosion a hundred years ago. The annual memorial service consists of a eulogy of Shinji Ikari himself, followed by music and lots of free food; to show that due to his death, no one would waste their lives, a precious gift granted by The Berserker, at the expense of his own. It was also the best place to avoid Leiko too, for she never went to such a thing, calling it a waste of time.

The three were too busy thinking about the free food that they didn't even notice a figure approaching them.

"TOJI!" it yelled as it dove towards the group.

Before Toji could respond however, he was tackled to the ground. "Emiko!" he growled. The girl always got on his nerves.

"Yes Toji?" she asked innocently, still on top of him. Emiko Yamato was the designated pilot of Unit 16, replacing the last pilot when he was discharged for physiological trauma; she was the third most experienced of the group, with a combat record of seven missions, following Kane and Toji with twelve.

"Get off of me," he said, blowing her long purple her out from his face. The girl had a big crush on him; similar to the one Asuka had shown to Kaji, it was beginning to get on his nerves. The girl would jump him at random times, sneak into his house, and worst of all, drag him shopping, despite his protests. Emiko was extremely possessive of him, angry at him for talking to other women, and upset when he tried his best to ignore her.

"I'm sorry," she helped him up and started to dust of his clothes, "are you alright, no broken bones or anything?"

"I'm fine," Toji said coldly, trying his best to ignore the girl.

Kane, noticing the hurt look on the girls face decides to say something. "Hey Emiko cheer up, I'm sure your going to love that present Toji got for your birthday tomorrow."

"What?" Toji screamed.

"Yea, it's going to be great, right Toji?" Jakob smiled evilly, catching on.

"Really?" Emiko's face lightened up.

"N-" Toji, couldn't finish because he was cut off by the ever feared, Angel Alarm; or the 'Messenger of Judgment' as, it was often called.

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Leiko sat down on a seat by her locker, to say she was angry in herself would have been an understatement, she shouldn't have gotten mad at her friend like that; it was completely uncalled for.

'No, she had it coming,' a voice told her in the back of her head. 'She knew never to talk about HIM around me…but why do I feel so bad?' she thought to herself. It was true, Kimiko knew never to talk about HIM around her, but she did it anyways. But she felt regret for having been so angry at her; it wasn't her fault. She sat there for several minutes, pondering what her feelings were.

However, those feelings would have to wait, for the Angel Alarm went off. Luckily she was already in the locker room, so she quickly got changed.

"I can finally show those damn bastards that I'm better than HIM," she said, heading towards the Eva cages.

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"About damn time you morons got here!" Leiko was waiting for a good fifteen minutes before the other pilots showed up.

"Sorry, some of us wanted to go to the ceremony," Kane sneered, "and not hang out at NERV trying to redeem our lost family honor."

Leiko gave a look of disgust. "It doesn't matter, by the end of this mission; I'll be the one given the rightful title of 'The Berserker'."

"Yea, that's what your parents said, and their parents…" Kane laughed.

"All pilots, report to your stations!" The Sub-commander yelled from the bridge; he getting very tired of those two.

Leiko gave Kane one last glare at each other before turning thier attention towards the Sub-commander. "Sir, yes sir!" they all responded, before heading towards their Evas.

"Sub-Commander Aida, what are you doing here?" Major Sumi Tanaka asked. She was the current Director of Operations at the moment; she was a tall woman, standing near six feet. She had shoulder length brown hair and was a level headed and brilliant tactician; well, as brilliant as they could get, many Director of Operations have quit, not being able to come to grips with the responsibility of sending children out to fight monsters from an unknown realm."

"The Commander will be here shortly," he answered, "I am to make sure you lead the children to victory." It was her first combat operation; he had to make sure she would not crack under any pressure.

"It's a shame," Sumi shook her head, "why is it that only children pilot the Evas?"

"Because only a child is naive enough to fight those goddamn monsters," Sub-commander replied.

A chill went down the spine of all the pilots, as to why, no one knows.

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"Alright, Units 15-17, you three are to engage the Angel on the surface," Sumi said, "Units 14 and 18 will remain as backup."

"Why do I have to remain as backup?" Leiko complained.

"We are to do what we are ordered, remember what happened a hundred years ago?" Kane smirked; he had just ended the argument before it even started.

"Hmph!" she replied, remembering how her great-grandmother had disobeyed orders and charged foolishly against the twenty-first Angel.

"Right," Sumi said, glad she won't be getting into an argument today. "The Angel has been detected to be somewhere within district four, we do not have any visual upon this Angel; you are to locate and terminate it, once we get visual we could scan it for weak points and come with up with a plan, okay?"

"Roger!" came the reply from Units 15-17

"Alright, Eva's launch!"

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"Hey Jakob," Toji said as the three of them were weaving around the deserted buildings. He was carrying an MK24-E Assault rifle, a high powered assault rifle designed to punch through the toughest of armor; sadly, like its predecessors, the shells merely shattered as they impacted against an AT-Field.

"Yes, what is it?" Jakob asked. He was also carrying an MK24-E Assault rifle; it had always bugged him why, even after a hundred years, the weapons haven't gotten any better.

"You scared?"

"A little," he replied. It was his and Leiko's first combat mission, but unlike Leiko, he only had roughly three weeks of training in a real Evangelion; compared to Leiko's four months. It also pained him greater that he had the lowest sync ratio, although, this was to be expected; he was the newest member of the team.

"Cut the chatter you two." Emiko said; she carried a Progressive Axe as her main weapon, with a Progressive knife located on the left shoulder as her secondary weapon, and an HK-12 Submachine gun for distant combat.

"Did it just get darker all of a sudden?" Toji asked, it had gotten very dark, it was only around eight, and it was already pitch black, they couldn't see a damn thing in front of them; the fact that all the street lights were off only made matters worse.

A loud clatter was heard behind the three of them.

"AHH!" Emiko screamed as a long claw ripped through her Eva and was thrown over Unit 15 and 17 before they could turn around.

"What the hell?" when Toji turned around, he saw nothing, adding to the fear and confusion of the two remaining pilots; the Angel had left as fast as it came.

"BEHIND YOU!" Jakob screamed as he opened fire with his assault rifle. Although it simply bounced off the AT-Field, it provided for some distraction.

Seeing the Angel turn its head towards Jakob, Toji pulled out his Progressive knife and lunged at the angel. However, it was too fast for him as the Angel turned its head and plunged its claw into the Eva's chest. Toji screamed in pain as the Angel threw him through the air and collided with Jakob. The Angel could have stood and watched as the two slowly tried to get back up, but decided to end things quickly. Two flaps opened on the side of the Angel's throat and launched a volley of needle spines towards the two.

Toji screamed in pain as the needle spines broke through his Eva's neck armor, but was quickly silenced when one came through the entry plug and stabbed him through the chest, killing him instantly.

Seeing that all three Evas were completely silent, the Angel turned its attention towards the ground, and began to burrow its way towards the Geo-front.

Inside Unit 17 however; Jakob laid there, exhausted and shocked, he didn't want to move, for pressing lightly against his throat was a needle spine that had broken into his entry plug, and worst of all, it had Toji's blood on it.

* * *

A/N: Sorry for the late (by my standard) update, I had to make the characters out to be believable, flawed creatures. Mainly because this story depends heavily on characters made from scratch and not ready-made ones. Oh, and the fact that I was Jet-lagged off of my ass also had something to do with it. Well, I hope you liked the current chapter… 

P.S: If you guys could give me ideas for character names and Angels (Full visual and statistic descriptions please) I would greatly appreciate it.

P.S.S: I got a 5 on my AP World History exam, I don't know, I just felt like bragging.

PLEASE REVIEW!

I KNOW WHERE THE DELETE BUTTON FOR THIS STORY IS!

**I know; I am evil…**


	4. The Calm?

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion right now, and if you don't give it to me...Presses gun against Anno's head...I'll blow your fucking head off...yea, that's right... 

Here is the fourth Chapter to 'The Berserker. I update when I feel like, will finish story, blah, blah usual stuff, just trying to up the word counts without actually writing the story :)

Also, I'm working my hardest to keep Shinji in character, it's just so hard to switch between my 'kick-ass owns all 20 year old Shinji, to spineless little freak Shinji. But since EoE has already happened, he has opened a bit, but it's only been so long.

**Important Reason on my late update at the bottom after chapter.**

I tried uploading this thing earlier but was being a bitch.

READ YA JACKASS!

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8/6/06-8/17/06

A lone figure lay on a bed; a mask draped over its face, with wires protruding from the nearby machine. It began to stir in its sleep and slowly opened its eyes. It soon notices that it is in some hospital room, and turns to see the accompanying bed empty.

"Jakob, you're awake!" Leiko exclaimed as she entered the room.

"Ugh." he moaned as he tried to get up.

"Well, it's good to see that you're finally up."

"Wait a minute, Leiko, are you actually caring about me?" he snickered.

"Of course not!" she blushed slightly, "We Germans have to stick together you know!"

"You're only, like what, a fourth German?" he laughed a bit, despite the pain in his neck. "You know I don't like mix breeds." He joked.

"Ha, ha," she rolled her eyes. "Whatever, Commander says he wants to talk to us all when we all check out of the hospital, says he's got a surprise for us."

"What do you think it is?"

"Who cares, might be the replacement pilot for Unit 15 or something," she scoffed, "What I want to know is how they defeated the damn Angel."

"Why would there be a replacement pilot for Unit 15?" Jakob wheezed; it seems that his last moments were so traumatic; his brain had selectively forgotten them, in a vain attempt to keep him sane.

"Well…" Leiko was a bit hesitant, "Toji's…gone…"

"What happened, is he alright?"

"Jakob," she paused, "he's dead."

"What?" his mouth gaped as he tried to take in the news. "He can't be! He can't be dead! TELL ME THIS ISN'T TRUE!" he begged.

"I'm sorry." She regretfully replied and left Jakob to brood.

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"Do I have to do this?" Shinji asked the Commander. He was informed that he was to meet the pilots once they have all checked out of the hospital. The Commander has ordered that none of the employees where to speak about Mr. Ikari's resurrection until due time. But now, in a few minutes he would meet them, and worst of all, Leiko. He was told to take the plunge and meet her and get everything over with. The fact that the employees where betting over how she would react didn't help lighten the mood at all.

"Yes, your appearance has brought up morale considerably; it would greatly improve the pilots performance if you were to fight along side them." the Commander replied.

"I guess."

"It's Leiko isn't it?" the Commander smirked.

"Well, it's just that."

"Don't worry, she's a nice girl, it's just when it comes to you, she's well..."

"Like Asuka." Shinji added.

"Speaking of which, is the theory true?"

Shinji gave him a puzzled look, "Theory?"

"Oh, you'll learn it in due time," the Commander laughed, much to Shinji's displeasure, "Well, wait here, come out when I call you, alright?"

"Yes sir."

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The four remaining pilots gathered in the debriefing room. They all sat next to each other giving each other confused looks as they pondered what the surprise was, but more importantly how the Angel was defeated.

"Jakob, you don't look so good." Kane asked.

"Leave him alone; don't you see he's not feeling well?" Leiko answered before Jakob could open his mouth to speak.

"He's not taking it too well?" Kane whispered to Leiko, who nodded in response.

"It's as if they don't care." Jakob muttered sadly, unheard by the rest of the pilots.

"Good morning Pilots, I'm happy to see all of you are okay." The Commander made his appearance into the debriefing room and began to speak. "At exactly 1948 hours, the Angel had been detected in district 4. We sent Units 15-17 to intercept it. However, were quickly dispatched, shortly after the Angel broke into the Geo-Front an engaged Units 14 and 18.

"Yes, yes we know what happened; tell us how you guys defeated the Angel." Leiko rudely interrupted.

"Why don't I show you?" The Commander smirked as the television screen flickered on.

"It can't be." Leiko gasped as they all watched. On screen Unit 01 was beating the Angel into the ground before ripping out the core and crushing it with one hand.

"I would like you all to meet a very special someone." the Commander turned his attention the door. "Say hello to, Mr. Ikari, AKA, The Berserker."

"Hello." Shinji said softly as he held his head low. He didn't want to make eye contact with any of the pilots, fearing what may happen. Emotions where mixed around the room. No one knew how to feel, how to react in a situation like this. Even Leiko didn't know what the hell to do, she had always dreamed of kicking the shit out of HIM, but now that she was actually given the opportunity, she didn't know what to do.

"We should all personally thank Mr. Ikari, for it was his actions that saved us all..." the Commander couldn't finish because a loud smack was heard, soon followed by a thud as Shinji fell to the ground. Everyone turned their attention to the assailant, only to be utterly shocked when they discovered who it was; Jakob.

"You think you're so great, don't you..." Jakob was breathing erratically and shaking as he stood over him, hand still clenched. "If you were as good as I thought, then T-toji w-wouldn't be...T-toji w-wouldn't be..." he stuttered as he spoke. He couldn't believe it, Toji was gone, and HE gets the glory. What of Toji? He couldn't take it, one of his friends was just killed inadvertently saving his life, and they thank HIM. "If you're so great...then...how come...Toji's...Toji's..." Jakob couldn't bring himself to finish, but instead kicked Shinji in the side before quickly leaving the room.

"You aright Mr. Ikari?" The Commander asked as he helped Shinji up.

"I'm okay." Shinji sadly replied. No one in the room said a word; it had been too much for them to digest in just one hour. No one spoke as they all tried to come to terms with what the fuck just happened.

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Shinji sat down by Unit 15 as it was being repaired in the cages. It was his fault, if only he had been there earlier, he could've saved Toji, but he couldn't do a damn thing about it. He held his knees to his chest as he stared at the hole in Unit 15's neck.

"Mr. Ikari, there was nothing you could have done; it was not your fault." The Commander said, trying to reassure the boy.

"..." Shinji ignored him as he kept on staring at his feet.

"Mr. Ikari, I believe there is something you must see." Shinji looked up as the Commander motioned him to follow after. Shinji followed the man throughout NERV until they stopped upon a certain room. "Take a look inside."

Shinji sighed as he looked through the window, taking a look inside he sees nothing but a few toddlers, children in fact; it was nothing but a drop off area for the employee's children.

"You're probably wondering why I'm showing you this; right?"

"..." Shinji said nothing but nodded in response.

"You see, these kids have so much ahead of them, they're only children," the Commander turned his attention towards the window. "I would be perfectly fine with dying right now, but these kids, they've yet to understand the true meaning of life, what it truly means to live. You may not have known this, but you haven't just given the people hope, you've given them a future." the Commander turned his attention away from window. "Sure Toji did not make it, and he was much too young to have died, however, he knew he would have died happy if he knew he would save one life by doing so. You must never live in the past Mr. Ikari, the past is the past, and we cannot change it, however we could take charge and try to shape our future as best we can."

"..."

"Do you understand?"

"I guess." Shinji returned his attention towards the children. He couldn't believe what they had to go through. They looked so carefree and happy, completely unaware of all the hell surrounding them. "Excuse me, but why are the Angel's still attacking?" he asked. It had been bothering him for some time. He had thought that Kaoru was the final Angel, only to be shocked a few months after.

"The Angels are persistent and stubborn creatures, much like us," the Commander replied. "In truth, we do not fully understand why they continue to attack; we know they're after Adam. We had thought the Dead Seas scrolls mentioned seventeen Angels; however it seems we misunderstood its meaning. We currently believe that Humanity is being punished for our sins. That our tampering with Adam in the year 2000 triggered the beginning of trials, trials of which we have to conquer in order to redeem ourselves, or all humanity will perish."

"..."

"However, that is only a theory, we have long since given up on trying to figure out the meaning, all we can do is try to survive, if not for our sake," he once again turned his attention towards the room. "Then for the children, for their future."

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Jakob wandered aimlessly around NERV, shoving and pushing everyone and anything out of his way before finally collapsing to the ground, crying.

"It's all my fault!" he yelled at himself. "If only I hadn't been so fucking useless!" he began to pound at the ground repeatedly.

"Jakob," Leiko said softly, catching up to him.

"Leave me alone," he muttered, pushing her away.

"Jakob, it's not your fault."

"YES IT IS!" he cried out, hand clenched and bleeding from its earlier beating.

"…"

"Leave me alone," he said coldly and walked away.

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Shinji was going for a walk throughout the Geo-Front in an attempt to clear his mind when he was so rudely taken out from his train of thought.

Leiko had stepped out in front of him with an angry look on her face. "Look here!" she jabbed her index finger into his chest. "What happened a few days ago was nothing but a fluke, I don't need any help from you, got it?"

"…" Shinji stayed silent but nodded in response.

"You're lucky Jakob got to you first too, otherwise I would have shown you a piece of my mind!"

"…" Shinji held his head low as internally wept.

Leiko glared at him for a few seconds. "I don't know what she saw in you," she scowled before leaving.

Shinji sighed as he shook his head, and then continued on his walk, somewhat hoping to wind up at Kaji's melon patch.

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"This just in, NERV has finally further information as to the mysterious resurface of the one and only 'Berserker'. The report states that the explosion on June 16, 2016 collided with the AT-field of Unit 01, propelling it and its pilot, Mr. Ikari, to the present. Odds of such were so slim; nothing short of divine intervention could've allowed such a thing to happen. However, no one seems to be complaining for wit the Berserker residing among us, we may all sleep soundly at night."

Shinji turned off the television after he had finished breakfast the next morning and prepared to head towards NERV. His apartment was relatively close to NERV HQ, for he would be easier to monitor.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same." Shinji shook his head, even after a hundred years; they watched him like a hawk. He paid it no mind however, and proceeded to meet with the Commander.

"Good morning Mr. Ikari, what brings you here?" the Commander asked.

"Just a question, why aren't I going to school?" asked Shinji.

"This isn't some cliché fanfiction Mr. Ikari; it would be extremely unwise for you to be out in public."

"No stupid excuse saying it's important to my education?"

"With your pay from 2015 stored in a bank account with interest for a hundred years, you've got enough money there to pay off the US Iraq war debt...three times." the Commander snickered at the last bit. "Also, what the hell would you do in school anyways? All they do is drone on and on about the Second impact."

"After a hundred years, they still talk about that?" Shinji face-faulted.

"It's a shame really."

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"In the year 2000...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." the teacher droned on endlessly. He was beginning to sound like the teacher in 'Peanuts'.

"Make it stop, make it stop." Kane was begging from the back of the room.

"At least he isn't talking about HIM." Leiko scoffed.

"Come on Leiko you mustn't be too hard on him, he did save us all after all." Emiko added in quickly, trying to prevent another argument; she, like most of the class, really hated when Kane and Leiko went at it.

"Yea, it seems little miss arrogant messed up, you were right, it is in the genetics!" Kane replied; she had failed.

"Shut up, if I don't recall, you went down faster than I did!" Leiko retaliated.

"Hey has anyone seen Jakob?" Emiko said, desperately trying to change the subject.

"I don't know, therapist said to give him a few more days off."

"He took it the worst of us all." Kane included.

"Well, back on subject..." Leiko said, before bringing up another topic about the Berserker, only leading to another argument. Emiko sighed as she moved to the other side of the room, this happened way too often.

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"I can't fucking believe it!" Leiko yelled out. She sat next to Kimiko as they ate their lunch.

"Me neither, I wonder if I'll ever meet him." she gave in response.

"Hmph, he's a boring spineless wimp!" Leiko scoffed.

"If a boring spineless wimp easily defeated an Angel, then what are you?" Kimiko smirked.

"Whatever." She huffed, defeated.

"I wonder if the theory's true." She pondered.

"Oh no, hell no!"

"Come on, a DNA test could easily confirm it true or false."

"Fine, I'll request one just to prove you wrong!"

"You really have issues with him don't you."

"Yes, now let's pick another damn topic!"

"Fine, fine." Kimiko huffed; she really did have issues. "Well, how's Kane taking it?"

"He won't confront the guy, idiot deems himself unworthy or some shit like that."

Kimiko laughed in response.

"But Jakob took it the worst of us all." Leiko added. "He's been over the top since he found out Toji died, and I guess he just took it out on HIM, not that he didn't deserve it or anything."

"Poor guy."

"Yea, Jakob was the most normal one of us all, but now, it seems he's the worst off."

"And I guess he hasn't been fully hardened by all the hell we've been through."

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"How can they carry on like nothing has happened?" Jakob asked himself as he laid on his bed in a fetal position. "I don't think I'll ever get used to this feeling," he said to himself; remember the conversation he had with the Commander the night before.

_"Mr. Prefferburg, a word?" the Commander said as he took a seat next to him._

_Jakob held his knee to his chest as he blankly stared ahead. His self esteem was in shambles and he couldn't concentrate on one thing at a time. He was angry at himself for blaming someone else for his faults._

_"Mr. Prefferburg, we all know how hard it is to deal with the loss of a friend." the Commander began to speak. "But I don't think Toji would've been happy to see you grieving over him like this."_

_"How?"_

_"Huh?" the Commander looked at him confused._

_"How can you act as if nothing happened?"_

_"You eventually get used to the feeling," the Commander sighed, "the problem is however, is the fact that you do eventually get used to the feeling."_

"I don't think I'll ever want to get used to this feeling," he muttered, before falling asleep.

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"Good afternoon Mr. Ikari, it is an honor to finally meet you in person." Sumi greeted as she bowed in front of Shinji.

"Good afternoon." Shinji replied.

"I've heard so many stories about you, and the second we first say you in battle, we knew that it was you for sure."

"…"

"I believe I speak for all of us when I say 'Thank you'," she began, "for if it weren't for you, we would have all certainly perished."

"Um…you're welcome?" He replied meekly.

"I guessed they never said anything about your sense of humor in the books." Sumi laughed.

"…"

"We hope we will not be needing your assistance in the next battle, we must learn to be able to fight on our own, in case you were to ever be unavailable.." She said politely.

"That's okay."

"Thankfully with your appearance, the number of new recruits have skyrocketed."

"Why did you join NERV?" Shinji asked as he watched the technicians work.

"To fight for the future of humanity," she replied, "to quote, well…you."

"I see." Shinji shook his head; it seems things were really out of hand.

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All the pilots minus Jakob sat in the lounge as they waited for their next training session. Shinji was not in the room, must to Leiko's pleasure. However her feelings were crushed when he and the doctor walked into the room.

"Well, the results are in" the doctor said.

"Yes, and what were they?" Leiko growled. She had requested a DNA test after cracking under pressure from her friends. She just wanted to get it over with, and prove everyone wrong.

"It's negative."

"YES, I KNEW IT!" Leiko and Kane cheered in unison as they jumped for joy.

"However, we detected some genetic match between Mr. Ikari and Mr. Ayanami." the doctor added. Kane instantly turned silent.

"Does that mean?" Emiko asked.

"Yes," Shinji replied, everyone stared at him, "She was my half sister."

Everyone face faulted upon his answer.

"You mean she was not your lover?" Kane asked.

"No, that would be wrong on so many levels." Shinji replied.

"Well, it could be worse; I could be related to YOU." Leiko added.

"Yes, yes, we're very happy for you, now leave." Kane said. Leiko happily obliges and quickly leaves the room.

"I'm glad that's over and done with." Emiko sighed; glad to have some questions put to rest.

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Leiko was mentally cheering since she had gotten out of the room; happy to have some good news for once in her miserable life. Growing up as a Soryu was never easy. All the tormenting and humiliation they had to endure from the public. No one cared for them, seen as nothing more than a burden to the 'Great Berserker'.

"Leiko." she was broken from her train of thought when she heard her name being called.

"What do YOU want?" she replied, seeing who it was.

"I'm sorry." Shinji just responded.

"What do YOU have to be sorry about? I'm glad I'm not related to likes of YOU!"

"Why do you hate me?" he asked softly.

"Why?" Leiko was fuming, how dare he ask just a stupid question; he had no idea. "BECAUSE OF YOU, OUR LIVES HAVE BEEN NOTHIG BUT HELL! YOU DON'T FUCKING UNDERSTAND ALL THE SHIT WE HAVE TO DEAL WITH! IT'S ALWAYS BERSERKER THIS AND BERSERKER THAT, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO US SORYU'S ALL WE EVERY GET IS SOME FUCKING RITACULE!" she exploded onto him.

"..." Shinji remained quiet throughout the ordeal. "I'm sorry."

Leiko paused for a second. "YOU better be, now leave me alone!" she hissed as she left in a haste.

"I'm sorry." he said to himself and left to aimlessly wander around NERV.

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A large shock wave trembled throughout NERV, sending the technician's scrambling; it didn't take an idiot to know that an Angel was attacking. However, for the mentally retarded, the alarm sounded, sending civilians towards the pretty shelters.

"I want all pilots located ASAP and the Eva's prepped and ready for launch in five minutes!" Sumi ordered from her post as everyone scrambled toward their positions.

"Pilots Ayanami, Soryu, and Yamato all readied and accounted for." replied one of the bridge bunnies.

"Unit's 14 and 16 prepped and ready for launch." added another.

"Good, prepare to launch Units 14 and 16; what's the status of Pilot Prefferburg?" Sumi questioned.

"Currently en-route, ETA ten minutes."

"Launch Units 15 and 16 to intercept, have Unit 17 and 18 on standby."

"Ma'am, what about Unit 01?" one of them asked.

"Hopefully we won't need it." Sumi answered, remembering the gruesome scene not so long ago.  
"We have visual on the Angel in district 2!" the monitor panned to a deserted street in district 2. There we see the Angel; it had an elongated body and roughly appeared to be some sort of earthworm. It was an eggshell white and levitated a few meters off the ground with its head in the ground, attempting to burrow its way towards the Geo-Front.

"This is Unit 14; we are in position and awaiting further orders." Kane's voice was heard from the communication system.

"The Angel is attempting to break into the Geo-Front, engage and eliminate this threat." Sumi responded.

"Roger that, Unit 14 out."

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"Roger that, Unit 14 out." Kane said, ending communications with the bridge.

"I'm going in, cover me." Emiko slowly progressed upon the Angel, Progressive Axe in hand.

"Roger that." Kane replied, opening fire with his Assault Rifle. As expected, the Angel popped its head from the ground and turned its attention from where the shells were coming from. Giving Emiko just enough time to flank swing her ax at its exposed side, cutting it in half, causing the body to fall down, limp.

"That was easy."

"Too easy..." Kane said skeptically. "LOOK OUT!"

However the warning came too late as the Angel regenerated and reconnected the two halves. Emiko's eyes widen as she saw ten rows of razor sharp teeth, before it clamped down on her head, snapping it clean off.

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"SEVERE THE SYNC TO UNIT 16'S HEAD NOW!" Sumi yelled frantically as the technicians quickly followed orders, just as they watched Unit 16's head fly off its body and collided with a building. "What's the status of the pilot?"

"She's alright; we got to her just on time!" A loud sigh was heard on the bridge.

"Kane, fall back and lure it towards Quadrant 2A, we'll provide cover support with the missile batteries."

"Roger that." Kane obeyed, slowly backing off as the missile batteries opened up and began to waste hundreds of missiles to draw the Angel's attention away from Unit 16. As planned, the Angel turned away from Unit 16 and began to glide towards Unit 14. However the Angel began to gain ground and catch up to Unit 14.

"He won't get back on time, send Unit 17 to assist." Sumi barked as the technicians launched Unit 17 to the surface.

"Unit 17 has reached the surface."

"Unlocking primary restraints."

"There's a problem, pilot is unable to sync!" screamed a technician as the nerve connections dropped dead.

"JAKOB, CAN YOU HEAR ME?" yelled the panicked Major.

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Inside Unit 17, Jakob was not having a good time.

'How can they act so normal about this? They carry on day after day like Toji never died. Don't they care?' those thoughts kept on running through his mind. He hadn't been able to think and concentrate since Toji's death, and it didn't make matters any better that everyone carried on business as usual.

"PULL HIM BACK!" Sumi screamed; Jakob was dead in the water.

The Angel however, was distracted by the appearance of Unit 17 and allowed Kane to retreat. It began to move towards Unit 17 when the gates began to close to return the Eva to the cages. Knowing that it won't get to its target, it picks another course of action. Two slits opened up on the top of its head, roughly resembling eyes.

"High energy reading coming from the Angel!" yelled one of the bridge bunnies.

"Pull him back, before it's too late!"

They were too late. The 'eyes' flash momentarily before a large hole was blown straight threw Unit 17's chest, just below the entry plug, and roughly damaging the core. Whatever remained of Unit 17 was able to return to the cages; however, the technicians were much too busy trying to retrieve the Eva to remember to cut the sync, allowing Jakob to take the blow full force.

Seeing another Eva incapacitated, Sumi began to debate her course of actions; to send Leiko and Kane to meet a similar fate, or play their trump card?

"Locate Mr. Ikari." she finally decided that it would be better than getting any pilots killed.

"WHAT?" A scream was heard throughout the bridge. Everyone ignored it and cut communications with Unit 18, Leiko's Eva.

"Mr. Ikari has been located in the locker rooms; Unit 01 has been prepped and ready for launch."

"Good, have him launched in Quadrant 2A in ten minutes." Sumi ordered.

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'No, I don't need his help!' Leiko mentally screamed when she found her communications have been cut. 'I don't need his help, I can do this on my own!' she kept on screaming to herself.

"Leiko, you and Mr. Ayanami are to assist Unit 01." Sumi said.

"Yes ma'am." Kane agreed as he grabbed a second assault rifle.

"Yes ma'am." Leiko reluctantly obeyed, before be launched straight towards the surface to rendezvous with Units 01 and 14.  
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Shinji was beside himself as he stared at the Angel. He had been here for barely a week and so many things had gone wrong. But the worst of it all was right now. He had to fight the Angel, he had to protect everyone. He could not fail; everyone was counting him, depending on him. All their hopes and dreams for a brighter tomorrow on him. He laughed a bit when he realized something, how different is this? All this was going on back in the year 2015.

"Mr. Ikari, upon further analysis, the Angel's core has been located within the Angels mouth." Sumi informed. "You are to breach its defenses and destroy it."

"Wait a minute; you're going to send him straight into the thing's mouth?" Kane asked. The last person to go against the things mouth nearly got her head snapped off.

"It's a task only the great Berserker himself can accomplish," she replied.

"Yea right, give me five minutes with that thing and I'll get the job done." Leiko scoffed. Everyone on the bridge sighed, why would they even bother arguing?

The Angel, seeing the three Evas examined and watched them as they stood. It, however, soon got bored and opened its 'eyes'. They flashed for a split second as the ground in front of the Evas exploded. The three pilots jumped out of the way, but were momentarily distracted by the flying debris allowing the Angel to quickly break through their defenses. It moved quickly and was soon in front of Unit 18.

Leiko's eyes widened as all ten rows of teeth within its mouth appeared in front of her. She closed her eyes and waited for the killing blow, it never came. She opened her eyes to see Unit 01 in front of her, both hands holding the Angel's mouth open, core exposed.

"I could've handled it myself!" she arrogantly proclaimed, withdrawing her knife as she went in for the kill.

The Angel, however, had different plans and pushed Unit 01 back into Unit 18, causing Shinji to lose his grip as he hit the concrete, hard. It quickly turned its attention towards Unit 14 and then blew its head clean off of its shoulders before Kane could react. It then turned its attention back to Unit 01 and notices, much to its surprise, that it has gotten back up.

"I mustn't run away." Shinji repeated over and over to himself as he struggled to stand up, ignoring the pain he felt. He withdrew his knife and held it in front of him, taunting the Angel to attack him.

The Angel attacked so quickly that Shinji wasn't even able to blink. It went straight for his head in an attempt to take out its opponent quickly. Shinji was quick enough however and plunged his knife into the side of the Angel. It let out a roar of pain as Shinji tackled it onto ground and pulled his knife out of the Angel's side and aimed straight towards the core. His eyes widened as two slits opened on the side of the Angel.

He screamed as Unit 01's right arm was blown off from the shoulder. The Angel, seeing its opponent momentarily phased, lunged at Unit 01's neck and pinned it upright, against a building. Shinji felt his windpipe being crushed as he tried his best to wrestle free; his left arm dangled beside him, useless and immobile.

'Come on, everyone is counting on me,' he pleaded, 'I can't fail, they all need me, I can't lose…" he kept on saying in his head as he desperately tried to regain control of the situation. The Angel began to tighten its grip around his neck and press harder. Large cracks were made in the armor as they began to shatter. "Come on, everyone will die if you don't move, you can't let this thing kill you, kill everybody!" he yelled as he began to feel a sense of warmth wash over him. "Here we go again." he said, before losing consciousness.

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The bridge was in a sense of panic, they had hoped everything would end up okay, but it seems fate had other plans. Unit 01 was held in a death grip and the pilot's vitals were beginning to waver.

"Ma'am, there seems to be a problem with Unit 01!" yelled a frantic technician.

"What's the problem?" Sumi screamed, the stress was getting to her, she was begging to understand why others have quit before her.

"Unit 01 is giving off abnormal readings!"

"We haven't detected the cause of-" the technician was interrupted by a loud crash.

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Unit 01's eyes flashed as it grabbed a hold of the Angel with its good arm and pulled it from its neck. It let out a terrifying roar as it slammed the Angel into the ground repeatedly. The Angel screamed out in pain as Unit 01 continued to slam it into the hard concrete. Unit 01 then quickly regenerate its right arm, and picked up its progressive knife; it held the knife firmly in its hand as the knife pierced through the thick skin of the Angel.

The Angel let out another roar of pain as Unit 01 began to hack at its body, spraying the Angel's blood all over Unit 01's body. It turned its 'eyes' towards Unit 01 in an attempt to take off its head. Unfortunately for the Angel, Unit 01 leaned its head slightly to the right and the energy beam flew harmlessly into space. Unit 01 continued to hack at the Angel's body and was quickly ripping the Angel into many bits of flesh, bone, and whatever the fuck Angel's are made of.

Unit 01 smiled in triumphed when it saw the Angel's core partially exposed. The Angel desperately tried to regenerate its body and close off the exposed core. However Unit 01 wasn't going to let the opportunity pass and grabbed a hold of the core and ripped it straight from the Angel's body. Unit 01 let out another terrifying roar before it crushed the core within its hand.

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In a dark room, in a secret location unknown to many, twelve figures sat around a table. They had all met under unexpected circumstances; the appearance of a certain boy. They all knew what had happened, and they all knew what they had to do.

"It seems that he has returned," said one of them.

"It appears we will be able to finish what our forefathers have started,"

"Yes, it appears so," the figure smirked.

-----------------

**Very Important Notice**

Okay, I apologize for my late update. My life is starting to become hell. I've got lots of AP US and AP Physics shit to get done. I've got friends to hang out with and people to meet. I've also been playing video games like many kids my age and going outside more, kinda weird thing to say in the dame sentence, but deal with it. So I deeply apologize and regret to say that my two stories will be slowly updated due to many factors. I'm sorry, but fanfiction is a high priority in any circumstance, I hope you all understand.

**I however promise to finish this story no matter what; I always finish what I start.**

NOW FOR THE OMAKES!

**Omake 1**

All the pilots minus Jakob sat in the lounge as they waited for their next training session. Shinji was not in the room, must to Leiko's pleasure. However her feelings were crushed when he and the doctor walked into the room.

"Well, the results are in" the doctor said.

"Yes, and what were they?" Leiko growled. She had requested a DNA test after cracking under pressure from her friends. She just wanted to get it over with, and prove everyone wrong.

"Leiko," Shinji said, "**I AM YOUR GRANDFATHER!**"

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

**Omake 2**

The Angel let out another roar of pain as Unit 01 began to hack at its body, spraying the Angel's blood all over Unit 01's body. It turned its 'eyes' towards Unit 01 in an attempt to take off its head. Unfortunately for the Angel, Unit 01 leaned its head slightly to the right and the energy beam flew harmlessly into space.

In a galaxy far, far away

"Are you alright? What's wrong?"

"I felt a great disturbance in the Force…as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. You'd better get on with your exercises."

Well, I'm done for now.

PLEASE REVIEW!

I KNOW WHERE THE DELETE BUTTON FOR THIS STORY IS!

Toodles.


	5. A Lost Cause

Disclaimer: I do not own Neon Genesis Evangelion, but that doesn't matter, because I'M BAAAAAAAAAAACK!

**Special Treat: Early Update**

I'd like to say hello to all my readers who have began reading this back in 2006. I deeply and humbly apologize for failing to keep my promise to you all. Things have come up one after the other, but I know that is no excuse, even when it comes to complete strangers over the internet. However, I feel it is obligatory of me to finish this story and bring a great conclusion to what I believe as one of my best stories ever.

To my new readers, if you have made it this far, I'm assuming you've either liked the first four chapters or you really need some time to kill. Regardless, I'd like to welcome you on board the crazy train. I hope you learn something from my story, whether it be that this story sucks, it reminded you the oven was on, or that I'm a total douche for making you learn something from this story, or even that this is the awesome thing ever written ( I pray it's the latter). Anyways, read on, and enjoy.

Oh, and everyone can thank MUCHOANIME (now Etka Utjak I believe) for getting this story kick started. His PM somehow scared the shit out of me so badly I immediately opened up Word and started on Chapter 5.

Well, let's just get this started.

* * *

5/9/07 – 5/12/07

"This isn't good." Sumi muttered. "This isn't good at all."

She, along with the Leiko, Kane, and Emiko stood in front of a hospital bed. There were in the sacred room, the hospital room that treated the great Berserker over a hundred years ago. And now, it was still doing the same thing.

"I guess it isn't." Emiko added in a grim tone.

If it had been any other pilot, there would not have been a problem. A replacement would be quickly found, easily replacing the casualties sustained. Despite fighting such an 'unpopular' war with these Angels; everyone agreed that living in hell was better then not living at all. So, parents reluctantly encouraged their sons and daughters to go fight, much like "The Berserker" once did. But, this was no ordinary pilot. Shinji Ikari had been in a coma for the past month, and his chances of survival were extremely low. The situation looked bleak, for the last two Angels, Shinji had protected them, rescued everyone from their untimely deaths. But they're now alone, left to fend for themselves, despite fighting Angels for over a hundred years; it looks like they've reached the end of the line.

"We still have one fully operational Eva left." Kane said, trying to add something positive.

"Don't worry; I'm sure I can handle the Angels just fine." Leiko exclaimed, feigning confidence.

No one bothered to reply to her, they knew she was only trying to lightening the mood. But, even Leiko was knocked down a few pegs after Shinji's display of horror during the last battle. The videos and documentaries was nothing in comparison the actual "Berserker". The blood curling roar released from Unit 01 paralyzed her as she watched Unit 01 fight. It rocked Leiko to the very core, and it was then she discovered, she was way out of her league.

"So…what do we do now?" Emiko asked, still staring at Shinji.

"We wait." Sumi replied. "And we pray."

"I have a bad feeling that this will only get worse." Kane added.

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The children all sat on the roof during lunch. They all made small talk, trying their best to stay sane in their current predicament. The Angel was over due, and that it would be here any minute. With only one operational Eva, the chances of success where drastically reduced. Everyone in the world knew of the situation at hand, and they all prepared for the worst. The Berserker was only able to bail them out for so long.

"So…how long…?" Kane asked, staring at the city from the railing. He stared at the city; many years of fighting had reduced Tokyo-5 into a bitter warzone. Kane spent the first two weeks after the last Angel attack lashing out at himself. It was simple, he had failed them; he had failed the world, the city, his friends…and worst of all, he had failed 'The Berserker' himself.

"…Until what?" Emiko replied. "Until we all die?"

"Yea, I've been wondering that. The angel's long overdue; it should have attacked by now."

"I'm not complaining, what do you think Leiko?"

Leiko didn't respond, she simply looked down and held back tears. Ironic isn't it? She fought horrors many only see in movies, she's seen her friends die around her, whether killed directly, or indirectly, it didn't matter. Yet, now she is nothing but a scared little girl, and she couldn't take it anymore, she just wished that the Angel would just come and kill everyone already; the waiting was beginning to get to her. And the tension was getting real thick. Kane and Emiko didn't want to press the issue; Leiko seems to be taking it much harder than anyone else.

Over the past few weeks she began to think back on her life. She had spent her entire life loathing Shinji, angry that he had stolen her family's rightful claim to glory. However, even after she belittled him, and yelled at him, he came back, the legendary 'Berserker' came back, and he killed the Angel; at his expense. Leiko began to think of her relationships with the people around her, to some, she had tried to make amends. Sometimes people forgave her, sometimes they sneered at her, cursing about how her arrogance sentenced them all to death. It pained her that many wished she had not gotten in Shinji's way, and that she was the one that was dying. She silently wept as she began to contemplate her relationship with a certain blonde boy.

"How do you think Jakob's holding out?" she asked, simply throwing the question out.

"Not too well Leiko." Emiko answered.

It was painfully obvious that Leiko liked the boy, trying to get his attention the second he arrived. Although Jakob was assigned as the Pilot of Unit 17 only two months ago, he had been living in Tokyo-5 as a trainee for nearly a year. There was always something Leiko liked about the boy, something that drew her to him. Maybe it was how laid back he was, he was always able to pull out perfect marks while devoted most of his time to video games. Though, it could be because he was more willing to listen to Leiko, regardless of how farfetched and conceded she sounds.

"He got into another fight yesterday." Kane said.

"Again…?" Leiko replied, unsurprised. "…With who?"

"Michael Warren, American Trainee."

"Oh." She simply said, looking back towards the cities.

Jakob was never the same after Touji's death. He went from a cheerful, carefree guy to a depressed kid in a matter of days. But the depression was much better then the bursts of anger present in him now. Fortunately, his low sync ratio prevented any permanent damage during the last Angel attack; however he was commonly getting into fights, acting out without any inhibitions.

"I don't understand it." Kane sighed. He had joined Leiko at the edge and was staring out towards the cities.

"Understand what?" Emiko asked curiously.

"Why we can take the death of our friends in stride." He answered, "Are we truly cold hearted?"

No body wanted to give the answer to a question they already knew.

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"Mr. Prefferburg, your performance has not shown any signs of improvement." The Commander said.

Across from him was Jakob, former pilot of what remained of Unit 17. He had called this meeting with the young pilot in private in order to settle a few things. The man was getting old, and the many faces of the pilots he had given this speech to were beginning to mold and blend into one. So many pilots; so many faces; he simply could not keep track of them all, no matter how hard he tried.

"I just can't take this fucking shit any more!" Jakob appropriately cried.

"I know Mr. Prefferburg; you're going through a rough time." The Commander replied.

"Really, you don't think?"

"Jakob let me tell you something." He cleared his throat. "We are in a war, whether we asked for it or not doesn't matter anymore; whether or not we intentionally started this by poking Adam with a giant fork, as I like to call it. We are here now, and all we can do is slug on through the mess we're in. None of want this; I would be extremely content with simply letting the world die. However, there are many of those who still have a long life ahead of them, and I just can't let them die without living a good full life.

I have seen so many more children die for the world, because that's all you truly are, children. It makes me sick having to send you all out there to your very deaths. I don't know how many times I've given this very speech. Jakob, we all fear death, and we hate see our friends die, but Touji would be happy, if he managed to save just one life…"

"Don't you ever fucking say his name again!" Jakob cried. "You are all cold hearted bastards you know that?! You go on every damn day, acting as if nothing is wrong. There's simply one less pilot to you isn't it?! How can you carry on day, after day and take it all in stride?! You sent him out there to die and you know it, anything short of the Berserker is expendable to you isn't it?! I'm leaving!" he finished his rant and made for the door. Opening and closing his hand to relieve the stress, he wanted to kill something, so badly right now.

The Commander simply took out cigar a lit it. He took a long drag from it before putting it back down. The speech he had told Jakob was simply the same one as countless others. But, he had never been able to finish a single one of them.

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"Come on girl, he needs your help right now." Leiko was standing on Jakob's lawn at the moment. She never got over the size of his place.

Jakob had lived in such extravagance and excess it was impossible to believe that he was stuck in some sort of war zone. It had a three car garage, a large lawn, and an Olympic sized swimming pool in the backyard. The house was equipped with a game room, at LEAST five bedrooms, and even a redundant indoor swimming pool. He said that it had belonged to his relatives in Germany, but they never used it. So Jakob simply lived alone, in such a large house.

Leiko figured he might need some company, and volunteered herself to cheer him up a bit. She knocked on the door and awaited a response. After waiting for some time she tried the handle, and to her surprise, found it unlocked. Peering inside, she noticed that the place was completely dark, in absence of any light whatsoever.

"Jakob?" she called out, checking to see if anyone was home.

As she made her way towards the stairs she heard a sound. She froze for a quick second but the sound was gone the second she heard it. Shrugging it of, she continued up the stair case and onto the second story. She paused once again when she heard the sound a second time. It obviously came from the master bedroom, a.k.a. Jakob's room.

"No Jakob…" Leiko heard. "…not today…"

"Come on, you never said no before…"

Curious, she continued towards the room and lightly placed her hand on the knob. For reasons unknown to her she found difficulty in trying to open the door. She told her self that it was nothing and tried to force herself to open the door, to no avail.

"Please Jakob, not today…" she heard a moan.

Her heart literally stopped for a split second when she heard that voice. It sounded eerily familiar, but she couldn't consciously figure out who it was. Her subconscious however, easily recognized that voice, and every inner part of Leiko screamed at her to walk away. Unfortunately she reluctantly turned the knob and peered inside.

"Your mouths say no…but your body seems more then willing."

"…Leiko…?"

She couldn't believe what she saw in front of her. Both Jakob and Kimiko where half naked on the bed in the middle of the room; small bits of clothes were strewn atop of the bed and on top of the blankets.

"Leiko…it's not…well, I guess it is what it looks like isn't it…?" Kimiko sighed.

"H-how…how could you…?" she muttered, tears began to well up on her face as then gently rolled down her cheeks.

Jakob, wearing nothing but his boxers, slid off the bed and began picking up his clothes. The two girls watched him simply leave the room as if nothing had just happened. This left just Leiko and her 'best friend' alone in the room. For a while none of the two said anything towards it each other. They barely moved from their position, with Leiko leaning back against the wall, tears still streaming down her face. Kimiko lay in bed, blanket wrapped around her, covering most of her breasts.

"How long…?" Leiko was the first to speak.

She didn't get an answer to her question. Kimiko just held her head low and didn't bother to give a response.

"How long…?" she spoke again, in the same downtrodden voice.

"Jakob and I…" Kimiko finally said. "…We've been together for almost a year now."

"Jeez, you snatched him up the second he got here didn't you." Leiko scowled, finding her bitter self again.

"I'm so sorry."

At that very moment, the one thing no body wanted to hear went off. It was the ever dreaded Angel Alarm, the 'Messenger of Judgment' as they have cutely named it. Unfortunately today they would all truly be judged; only Unit 18 had any real fight in it, the other three where in repair. Without their precious trump card, their 'deus ex machina,' their little Berserker; humanity seemed, for lack of better word, royally boned.

Yet despite this all, Leiko could help keep herself from laughing. She literally broke into tears of joy as the thought of impending Armageddon went through her mind. She was free…she was free from it all now. Just one last mission, one failed and futile mission and it will be all over. No more Berserker, no more Jakob, no more betrayals, and best of all, no more family honor. It felt great, it felt uplifting. It felt sickening.

She remembered her mother speaking to her before she died. She, as expected, was an Eva pilot before her. It was twelve long years ago, when she was only four years old. She could remember it like it was yesterday…

"_Mommy, are you alright?" little Leiko cried. _

_She ran along side the stretcher that carried her mother into the ER. Just eight minutes prior she was in the death grip of an Angel; it snapped the neck of the Eva, crushing through the armor and into the entry plug. Unfortunately for her, she was not given a quick death. The armor plating on her Evangelion was able to protect her just enough to prevent an instant death, a mixed blessing in her case._

"_Leiko…" her mother wheezed, her breathing labored. _

"_Mommy, please tell me you're going to be okay." She cried, tears pouring out of her eyes._

_The doctor simply shook his head; Mrs. Soryu knew she wasn't going to make it. The men pushing the stretcher stopped; the wheels beneath slowing down till there was not movement. Both men looked at each other and backed away slightly, giving Mrs. Soryu some time to say good bye to her daughter._

"_Leiko…"she barely let out. "I…I need…I need you too…"_

"_Anything mommy, anything!" Leiko grasped her mother's hand._

"_Do…you love your mommy…?" _

"_Yes, I love you mommy." _

"_Good…then I need you…to become a pilot…" her mother gasped, running out of time. "…achieve where I have failed…restore our family honor…"_

Leiko's heart sank that very day. The very last words from her mouth were 'restore our family honor,' not 'I love you, very much,' or even and apology for leaving her behind. No, it was a stupid request, to fulfill some damn obsession that had belonged to her mother. Snapping back to attention, she realized she was still in Jakob's room, and not a minute had past since the start of the alarm.

Returning to Kimiko, she felt a smile stretch across her face. It felt disturbingly good today, and she was going to enjoy her last few minutes on Earth.

"Well Kimiko." She began. "I hope you had fun fucking Jakob for the past year, cause it doesn't look like you'll ever see him again."

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"What's the current status?" Major Sumi Tanaka cried out.

"Pilots Soryu and Prefferburg are ready for sortie." One of her subordinates replied. "Pilots Yamato and Ayanami are en route; ETA fifteen minutes."

'We don't have fifteen minutes.' Sumi thoughts, 'hell, we don't even have enough Eva's so the Pilots are moot anyways.'

"Eva Unit 18 is at full operational strength, while Unit 17 is at sixty three percent."

"What was the extent of the repairs?" Sumi asked.

Several technicians began to cipher through the computers. After several seconds and answer was finally given.

"Most damage was taken in the chest area." The technician began, "We've repaired most of the damage; however the lack of armored plating may pose for a problem."

"No matter, I'm guessing the other Evas are nonfunctional."

"Correct, attempts to reattach the decapitated head of Eva units 14 and 16 have been unsuccessful."

"What of Unit 15?" Sumi asked.

"Nonfunctional, the other Evangelions where placed at a higher priority, due to the Unit's lack of a pilot.

"We've got visual," Cried one of the other technicians.

Up on the surface, the Angel, designated number too many to count, advanced from where it once came from. It was a sight no one had ever seen in their entire life. It was a true Angel, an angel of death, but an Angel none the less. Its aura resonated through the city, bathing those unfortunately enough to be outside in a feeling of warmth. The Angel looked truly human; it carried itself on its large wings, hovering just above the ground. The robes it 'wore' blew back, drifting majestically in the wind. The sight the Angel made it truly felt like Judgment day.

"I want Units 17 and 18 to engage the Angel now," Sumi ordered. "It's all or nothing."

"But Jakob was barely able to sync with his Eva last time, what do you expect him to do?" A young female technician cried.

"Use him as bait if we have to."

There was silence on the bridge; no one wanted to believe what the Major had just said, but none of them thought it was that bad of an idea. They pushed that thought aside and immediately got back to work. The Angel was getting closer with every passing second, and the sooner the Pilots are in combat, the better.

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Leiko's heart skipped a beat when she heard the locking mechanisms around her began to move. The sounds of gears turning and clanking only brought her more unease. Finally the door slid open, reviewing to her what could finally be the last Angel to terrorize her ever again.

"This is it." She said to herself, somewhat happy.

The Angel turned around and stared at her with its big beautiful eyes. She had to shield her eyes from the blinding light that shined upon her. It felt warm, and comforting, she was naturally drawn to it. Unconsciously she began to walk towards it, being pulled by some external force.

"**I can end your pain." **

Leiko quickly snapped out of it and forced herself back. It was a trick; the Angel was merely drawing her towards it. She knew if she fell for it she would die. All of humanity would perish in flames and she was the only one that stood in the way. If she fails now all life on Earth would be extinguished.

"…**But isn't that what you want?"**

"Yes." She found herself saying. "I mean no!"

She tried to fight it, but the Angel was just too strong. Step after step she was getting closer to the Angel, it was futile to resist. The pull was warm and comforting, a pleasurable sensation of warmth and tranquility, the pleasure of peace of mind. Leiko felt no worries as she continued her march towards the Angel. It was pulling her ever closer and closer to her, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was ready to embrace it.

"**Come to me…"**

Panic; that was what ran through the mind of Jakob Prefferburg throughout the whole ordeal. He looked at the bridge and noticed that he wasn't the only one in such a state. In some pockets of the bridge he noticed men and women praying, in others embracing death, and tears and weeping in others. Forcing every last nerve in his body to correspond, he found his Eva responsive. A slight wave a joy washed over him, but he knew time was running short.

"Jakob, phenomenal, you're sync ratio is at seventy six percent!" he ignored the praise coming over the intercom.

He needed to act fast. Leiko was getting dangerously close to the Angel, and he needed a distraction. Without thinking he pulled an assault rifle from the armory and charged the Angel, firing from the hip. As he neared the Angel he slammed the butt of the assault rifle clear through the Angel's AT field and into its face, causing it to reel back.

"…Jakob…?" Leiko collapsed onto her knees, trying to get a hold of the situation.

"**Jakob, what the Hell man?"**

He froze when he heard that voice. It was Touji's; he had just heard it coming from the Angel.

"**Dude; what are you doing, fighting for these ingrates?" **

"I don't understand." Jakob had trouble speaking.

He kept telling himself that the voice was nothing but a trick, but he couldn't help it. It was so familiar, and so friendly he couldn't believe it. Jakob felt as if he was talking to his old friend again after so long.

"**They left me out there to die remember?" **

"But…"

"**But nothing, you know that, why are you fighting for them?"**

Jakob felt dizzy, he saw images of Touji in his mind; it was as if he was truly talking to him now. He found himself sitting in chair, in a dark room, with only an overhead lamp as a source of light. He felt pained as the Angel crept towards him, its body beginning to embrace the Eva.

"**I'm your friend, and I would never want anything to happen to you."**

"Why did you die on me?" Jakob found himself asking.

"**I wanted to protect you, to keep you safe, even with my life."**

Evangelion Unit 17 began to absorb the Angel, despite frantic calls from the bridge and the Major specifically, Jakob allowed it to enter him. He felt whole again, and refreshed, he didn't feel weary any more, and felt joy.

"**You know what you have to do, avenge me." **

In less then a second Jakob was clutching his hand around the neck of Unit 18. The power that was given from the Angel, he did not know the power, but it felt good. He let out a chuckle as he knew that line was definitely stolen from somewhere, but that did not matter. All that mattered now was punishing humanity for its crimes, for allowing Touji to die.

"Jakob…" Leiko cried out as she felt the life being squeezed out of her.

She felt the pressure from Unit 17 as it wrapped around her neck. She felt the pressure from JAKOB as he wrapped his hands around her neck. Futile attempts to cut her sync ratio did nothing to ease her pain as she felt the end nearing. She cried as this happened, her tears absorbed by the LCL the second they left her eyes.

"**Finish her, she deserves it."**

"Yes Touji, she's been nothing but a bitch to us hasn't she?" Jakob found himself saying.

"**Yes, it will be a pleasure to see her die slowly."**

"Jakob…please…" Leiko barely squeezed out.

Her world was spinning; the lack of oxygen began to blur her vision. She knew death was nearing her, and she there was only so much longer she would have left to live. It scared her; it terrified her tremendously, to finally see death face to face disturbed her to no end. Today, she was truly seeing the Angel of Death. Ironically enough, this Angel of Death was the one man she truly loved.

"Please…I love…you…" She managed to say before her world was beginning to fade, and then, there was only darkness.

Jakob slowly found himself releasing the Evas neck. He let Leiko drop as he release his hold and stared at his hands. It felt as if he was truly strangling her, face to face, personally. A feeling of disgust waved over him as he stared at the screen depicting Unit 18's entry plug. Leiko was a complete mess, her breathing frantic as her body tried to take in as much oxygen as humanly possible. He had just tried to kill, her, to take another person's life.

"**What are you doing? Finish this!"**

He heard the voice again, but this time he tried to fight it. Using every bit of will power in his body he forced himself to backpedal from Unit 18 and towards the ocean. The Angel's control was still great, and every inch he moved was taxing on his soul.

"**You can't stop me; I am a part of you now."**

It said again, still in Touji's voice. He hated that, he hated how the Angel was using the death of his friend to manipulate him like that. The very Angels that had killed them were using him as nothing more then a puppet, using Touji to control him.

"There's one way to." Jakob said, coming to a realization.

"**Would you seriously kill yourself, for these ingrates?"**

"…" Jakob didn't reply; he had no answer to that question.

"**I didn't think so. Come with me, I can promise you whatever you want!"**

"And, what of everyone else?" he asked the Angel.

"**What does it matter? They'll all perished, a fate they truly deserve."**

"Jakob…"

He heard Leiko mutter unconsciously, among other incoherent things. Looking at the screen again, he felt a stab in his soul; he was responsible for that, for trying to kill her. He won't do it, he won't let everyone die; it was not an option he was willing to allow. He was not going to allow the entire world to become incinerated in flames, all because he was sick of it. There was no other choice.

"Commander, you were right…tell Leiko…I'm sorry." Jakob said, thinking back to the conversation he recently had with the Commander.

"…_Touji would be happy, if he managed to save just one life…"_

"**Don't be a fool! They do not deserve to live; their presence can not be tolerated."**

"Shut up, you're getting annoying!" Jakob screamed as he fought over the controls of the Eva.

Everyone on the bridge watched in horror as Jakob wrestled for control against the Angel. By now, even the most dim-witted of all people had figured out he was going for the self-destruct protocol in the back of his seat. Only the strength and will of the Angel held him back as button by button Jakob began to initiate the self-destruct sequence.

Leiko began to slowly regain consciousness when she heard the sound of Jakob's screaming through the intercom. Normally it would take hours before she would have awoken, but the oxygen rich LCL in her entry plug helped to restore her body. Looking up she could only watch as Unit 17 began fighting with itself, trying its very best to wrestle control of the other.

"Jakob…" She cried as she quickly figured it out.

The sight of Jakob reaching in the back of his seat, as he slowly prepared to die. She cried out to him, to no avail. He was much too busy trying to finish the job then to reply to her. There were more important things on his mind at the moment.

"**You fool, we could have** **had everything!"**

"No, you could have had everything." Jakob gasped as he laid back and waited.

He gave one quick glance over to Leiko. He saw in her eyes a look of sadness and pain. It hurt him greatly to see such a face on a pretty girl, but it had to be done. He found a slight feeling of warmth looking into her eyes, and knew she felt the same. Leiko thought of what life could have been; they could have had a life together, in Germany or even Japan; maybe a couple of kids and shared hardships together. Unfortunately those dreams where dashed when a loud explosion ripped through the city of Tokyo-5, taking every last building with it.

Leiko only began to cry, she had been doing a lot of that lately; her tears seemed endless, ready to drown whatever land left on the world. All she had left in world to remember him back was the smile on his face before he died. That was the first time she had ever seen him smiled since Touji's death.

* * *

A/N: Chapter 5 is now complete! I hope you all enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It feels a little weird having to go from multiple stories and re-submerge myself into them; especially after such a long hiatus. Anyways…

PLEASE REVIEW!

DON'T MAKE ME TAKE ANOTHER ELEVEN MONTH BREAK!!!

Toodles.


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